Poll

Columns

Last year, Lancaster County was named the fastest growing county in South Carolina. One of the challenges growth brings is keeping up with the increasing number of voters so voting in elections is simple, easy and fast.

To help keep up with these changes, a bi-partisan effort by our county’s legislators has created new precincts and voting locations for Lancaster County voters, for which they should be congratulated.

One of the questions of the tragic killing of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney and eight of his church members at Emanuel AME Church is why him? And why now?

Maybe, just maybe, the answer is the date – June 17th. It was on this date that Dylann Roof opened fire. It was also on this date, 193 years earlier, that Denmark Vesey, a founder of Emanuel, planned to launch a slave rebellion in Charleston.

While the fireworks-related injury numbers are down about 9 percent and use of consumer fireworks is up by more than 59 percent over the last 20 years, it is still vital that consumers use the utmost caution with these products.

Consumer fireworks are truly safer today than ever before, and today’s smarter buying public uses the products carefully and with good common sense, resulting in more use of consumer fireworks with fewer injuries.

I read with interest the article concerning the City Council’s recommendation to the Lancaster County Transportation Committee (CTC) which streets needed to be repaved within the city limits of Lancaster.

Council had to decide between a lists of streets that were in dire need of repaving. Specifically mentioned were Clinton Avenue, Rock Springs Street, Hawthorne Road, Hampton Road and Springs Street and others that were not mentioned.

Imagine the year is 2039, which is 100 years since Germany invaded Poland to start a second world war.

To commemorate the anniversary, the German Republic decides to fly a flag emblazoned with a swastika on its capitol grounds. They say the flag is a symbol of their heritage and it is flying for all German soldiers and civilians who died during the war.

A simple night of fun turns into the worst nightmare for a mother. While documenting a short film, “Vision of Home,” Dekeem O. Reed’s mother, Alice Blackmon Tillman, showed the filming crew a picture she bought her son years before he was murdered.

The picture, which is still hanging in Dekeem’s room today, shows a young African-American boy kneeling beside his bed praying. Behind the boy is a beautiful African-American woman, who appears as an angel.

I would like to start by saying that I am disappointed that the conversation in South Carolina – largely driven by those outside our state – has been focused on a flag, rather than the victims of a heinous crime and their courageous and forgiving families.

While I always welcome debate on a divisive issue, I prefer that debate not come on the heels of a tragedy before the victims have even been laid to rest.

If the S.C. General Assembly doesn’t get the Confederate battle flag off the Statehouse grounds after what happened in Charleston last week, then we may as well replace the Palmetto Tree on the proper state flag – the beautiful blue one – with a swastika.

I’m sick of the cockeyed excuses from state politicians about why the Confederate flag issue is so complicated.